President-elect Donald Trump, with SoftBank Group CEO Masayoshi Son at his side, has announced that SoftBank will invest $100bn in the United States over the next four years in what would be a boost to the domestic economy.
In a joint appearance with Son on Monday, Trump said that the investment would create 100,000 jobs focused on artificial intelligence (AI) and related infrastructure, with the money to be deployed before the end of Trump’s term.
Trump said the investment was evidence of “monumental confidence in America’s future”. He playfully encouraged Son to make the investment $200bn with the Japanese billionaire responding that he would try.
The $100bn pledge, made at a flag-bedecked event at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, fits in with Trump’s vow to bolster the US economy and reduce the effect of inflation on Americans during his second term, which begins on January 20.
Trump called Son “one of the most accomplished business leaders of our time”.
The Monday announcement echoes a similar pledge that Son made with then-President-elect Trump at an event at Trump Tower in New York City in December 2016, when Son said he would spend $50bn and create 50,000 jobs.
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While that money was eventually spent, it is unclear whether those jobs were created. The company has been rebuilding its finances after the failure of high-flying office-sharing startup WeWork and after some of the tech firms it is invested in through its Vision Fund unit fell out of favour among investors.
Unclear fund source
Trump has an affinity for splashy announcements promising thousands of jobs, even though such investments do not always pan out. Early in his first term, he announced a $10bn investment by Foxconn in a Wisconsin factory that promised thousands of jobs but was mostly abandoned.
It is unclear how SoftBank plans to fund the new investment. As of September 30, SoftBank had about $29bn in cash and cash equivalents, according to its most recent earnings report. After a sharp decline in shares between 2021 and 2023, its stock has recovered, gaining nearly 50 percent year-to-date.
The funding could come from various sources controlled by SoftBank, including the Vision Fund, capital projects or chipmaker Arm Holdings, CNBC said.
Son has been a strong proponent of the potential for AI and has been pushing to expand SoftBank’s exposure to the sector, taking a stake in OpenAI and acquiring chip startup Graphcore.
In October, Son reiterated his belief in the coming of artificial super-intelligence, saying it would require hundreds of billions of dollars of investment.
Son said at the time that he was saving up funds “so I can make the next big move,” but did not provide any details.
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Trump promised last week that he would extend fast-track permitting to any company that invests $1bn or more in the United States.
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